Chapter 212: Caught

Fragments of the shattered wall fell beside Nan Yu's feet, but he didn't spare them so much as a glance, as though nothing had happened at all.

Yuan Qiyang opened the door and came in. The moment he saw the scene, he immediately headed for the hospital room next door. After opening the door, he found it completely empty. There was no one in the room on the other side either, so he immediately ordered people to check the rooms directly above and below them.

Those were empty as well!

How could Yuan Qiyang not understand what had happened?

Someone must have tried to break through the wall just now, only to flee immediately after their first attack failed. Their timing had been extremely precise.

But how could Yuan Qiyang possibly let them get away just like that?

Yuan Qiyang immediately notified everyone nearby.

"Everyone, seal off the entire surrounding area right now! The moment you see anyone suspicious, arrest them! Don't let a single one escape!"

Everyone immediately raised their weapons and ordered all the doctors, nurses, and other personnel moving around nearby to remain where they were. Those already inside hospital rooms naturally had to stay there. The only exception was if a patient required emergency treatment, in which case doctors could be assigned under supervision.

Everyone else had to remain where they were and wasn't allowed to leave without permission.

Yuan Qiyang said, "Check them one by one! Especially everyone near this hospital room. Don't miss anyone, and check them carefully! It hasn't been long. They couldn't have gotten far!"

Yuan Qiyang had already observed the situation around them and realized this.

The most important thing now was to find, among everyone they had detained, the people who had just tried to harm Nan Yu.

Though strictly speaking, they hadn't intended to harm him.

They wanted to take him away.

Yuan Qiyang inwardly scoffed.

What a joke!

If Nan Yu was actually abducted right from under his nose, wouldn't his little uncle skin him alive?!

There was absolutely no way he would let any of these people escape!

Nan Yu hadn't been affected at all.

Earlier, he had already wrapped a thread of mental power around each of the people who had tried to break in. Those mental power threads had now stopped moving. Presumably, those people were temporarily trapped somewhere and unable to leave.

It was probably because of Yuan Qiyang's actions.

Nan Yu stopped paying attention to them. He would go out and take a look after finishing the treatment. If they still hadn't found the attackers by then, he would intervene.

After all, he really couldn't reveal this method of his.

Even if his identity as a High-Tier Mental Power User was made public, this method of using mental power would still have to be revealed gradually.

No matter who it was, people needed time to accept something new and highly dangerous. Nan Yu understood that very deeply.

After all, Mental Power Users had always been considered weak people who needed the protection of Ability Users.

But now, simply by changing the way mental power was used, they could become powerful individuals who stood above all Ability Users.

And the most terrifying thing was that an attack from a Mental Power User didn't simply inflict injuries that could eventually heal.

In severe cases, they could directly turn someone into an idiot.

They could even destroy someone's Mental Sea, causing brain death and leaving the victim in a vegetative state!

In milder cases, the victim might develop schizophrenia, impaired mental faculties, memory loss, and other harmful mental disorders.

If such terrifying abilities possessed by Mental Power Users were exposed, there was no way everyone would simply accept them!

Especially considering one important fact.

No matter what group of people existed in this world, there would always be both good and bad individuals among them.

Mental Power Users were no exception.

Once this method became known, there would definitely be people who learned Nan Yu's way of using mental power and used it to harm society.

And when that happened, Nan Yu would inevitably be blamed for it.

Therefore, if his method of using mental power was ever going to spread, it definitely couldn't be introduced under his own name. He would have to find another way.

Of course, it was still far too early to think about that.

He could deal with it in the future.

When Nan Yu finished the treatment and came out of the hospital room, Yuan Qiyang was standing not far from the door with an ugly expression.

The moment he saw Nan Yu, he walked over.

"Brother Nan, we didn't find anyone."

Nan Yu found that a little strange.

He sensed his mental power threads and discovered that the people attached to the other ends were still in the same location as before.

They hadn't moved.

So why hadn't anyone found them?

Could there be a hidden room or secret chamber?

Impossible.

Why would something like that exist in this hospital?

Then had something gone wrong with Yuan Qiyang's people?

Nan Yu said, "Come with me. I'll take you somewhere. We should still be able to find them."

Yuan Qiyang slowly raised his head, looking puzzled.

"Brother Nan, you can find them?"

Nan Yu said, "I'm not completely sure. I just have a theory. Follow me first."

They talked as they walked.

Nan Yu asked, "How did you search earlier? You really didn't find a single one? You sealed the place off so quickly that they shouldn't have been able to leave the hospital."

Yuan Qiyang nodded.

"That's what I thought too. But we checked everyone once and couldn't find anyone suspicious. Even now, they're only allowed to move around inside this building. No one is allowed to leave."

Yuan Qiyang followed him forward.

After walking through a stretch of corridor, the two of them climbed the stairs to the next floor. They turned left and right several times before finally stopping in front of a hospital room.

Yuan Qiyang said, "We already checked this room. There are only two patients inside."

The moment he finished speaking, he saw Nan Yu staring at him.

Nan Yu stared at him without even blinking.

Yuan Qiyang felt increasingly unsettled under his gaze.

"Wh-What's wrong?"

Nan Yu said, "Repeat what you just said."

Yuan Qiyang found that strange, but repeated it anyway.

"We already checked this room. There are only two patients inside. No one else is there."

Nan Yu continued staring at him.

The hairs on Yuan Qiyang's body began standing on end.

"Brother Nan?"

Nan Yu sighed.

"Say it again."

Yuan Qiyang's brain, which had stalled for a moment, finally started turning again.

"There are only two... patients inside. There's no... no one..."

"Hm?!!"

Yuan Qiyang finally realized it.

"Don't tell me those two..."

Nan Yu pointed at the hospital room door.

"What are you waiting for? Arrest them."

His mental power threads extended directly into this room.

There were two threads in total, and both ended inside.

If there were only two patients in there, then those two so-called patients had to be the attackers.

As for where the original patients had gone...

Nan Yu felt it was better not to hold out much hope.

For convenience's sake, the attackers would most likely have disposed of them directly rather than going through the trouble of hiding them somewhere and taking care of them.

Besides, Yuan Qiyang's people would undoubtedly spare no effort in searching for them.

Yuan Qiyang nodded and immediately contacted his men, ordering them to surround the entire hospital room.

Yuan Qiyang said, "Everyone, be careful. The people inside may be carrying highly destructive weapons. Pay attention and dodge if anything happens. Understood?"

"Yes!"

Nan Yu, meanwhile, was immediately escorted out of the building.

From a location not far away, he watched the situation unfold.

He could still see the surrounded hospital room from where he stood.

Before long, Yuan Qiyang led his men inside.

In less than two minutes, the two attackers who had been pretending to be patients were captured and brought out, securely bound from head to toe.

Yuan Qiyang had his men take them onto a spacecraft bound for the military base as quickly as possible.

Then he took several people with him and went to find Nan Yu.

Nan Yu was waiting where they had left him.

When he saw Yuan Qiyang approaching from a distance, he even waved at him.

Yuan Qiyang raised a hand in acknowledgment.

But before lowering it, he suddenly pointed straight ahead.

Nan Yu blinked.

Then he immediately understood.

Yuan Qiyang was pointing behind him.

So what had appeared behind him?

But weren't the people behind him all members of the team Yuan Qiyang had specifically assigned to protect him?

How had someone actually managed to infiltrate this group?

That was impossible.

This team had been personally trained by Yu Lanfeng. There was no way any of them would betray him.

Then there was only one possibility.

This person was being remotely controlled by another Mental Power User!

And if Nan Yu hadn't misheard, when the other accomplices saw what the man was doing, they all looked as though they wanted to stop him but simply didn't have enough time.

Clearly, even they hadn't expected someone to suddenly attack directly!

"Idiot, what are you doing?! We're supposed to capture him alive! Alive! He's useless if he's dead! Completely useless! Stop right now!"

Nan Yu turned around and saw exactly that scene.

The others had obviously been caught completely off guard. None of them knew what to do.

Nan Yu, however, felt that now was a good time to reveal a small portion of his unusual mental power.

His mental power burst outward in an instant and invaded the Mental Sea of the assailant who was about to attack him.

Nan Yu used the fastest method possible to stop him from attacking.

His mental power attack succeeded.

Unfortunately, the man's attack didn't stop.

It continued flying toward Nan Yu.

That was a little awkward!

Fortunately, the attack did deviate slightly.

Nan Yu moved sideways and managed to dodge it without much difficulty.

Meanwhile, the assailant, whose concentration had been disrupted by Nan Yu's attack, gradually regained consciousness.

Nan Yu hadn't turned him into an idiot just now.

He had merely made him temporarily lose control of his own body.

All Nan Yu wanted was to buy time.

Yuan Qiyang arrived at that exact moment.

He kicked the Ability User directly in the head.

The man instantly lost consciousness.

Nan Yu glanced at him and nodded.

"Good. Take him away and interrogate him. Find out whether there are any other people hiding in the hospital. Arrest all of these people too. They must know at least something about what's going on."

Yuan Qiyang readily handed them over to the assistant behind him.

"You heard him. Dig out everything these people know as quickly and °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° thoroughly as possible."

In fact, Yuan Qiyang wasn't the one in a hurry.

Yu Lanfeng, who already knew what had happened here, was.

Just as Nan Yu was about to head back and check on the patient, a communication request from Yu Lanfeng came through.

"Isn't that a little too fast...?"

It hadn't even been ten minutes since the incident happened, had it?

And Yu Lanfeng was already calling him?

Had he been monitoring him the entire time?

No, no, impossible. Why would he...

Regardless, he had to answer Yu Lanfeng's call as quickly as possible.

"Brother?"

Nan Yu hadn't even begun explaining, yet he immediately lost his nerve.

Before coming here, he'd guaranteed that absolutely nothing would go wrong.

But now...

That guarantee seemed a little shaky.

Something had already happened on the very first day.

Yu Lanfeng's expression on the call didn't look particularly good.

"Xiaoyu?"

Nan Yu smiled brightly at him.

"Brother? What's wrong? I'm fine."

Yu Lanfeng breathed a sigh of relief.

"I know you're fine. I just wanted to talk to you."

Seeing Yu Lanfeng show weakness like this made Nan Yu feel uneasy, and his heart ached for him.

"Brother, don't worry. These people can't do anything to me. Even if they really manage to get close to me, I can make sure they're punished."

Others might not know what he meant by "punished," but Yu Lanfeng did.

Nan Yu meant turning all of them into idiots.

But Yu Lanfeng was still worried.

He knew perfectly well how strong Nan Yu was now. Ordinary people couldn't do anything to him at all.

But just looking at Nan Yu still made his heart ache.

It made him feel unbearably uneasy.

What if?

What if Nan Yu failed to react in time just once and someone succeeded?

What if they captured him and took him somewhere unknown?

Where would Yu Lanfeng even begin looking for him then?

Nan Yu was destined never to understand these worries, because as far as he was concerned, even if he really was captured, he would definitely be able to escape.

His mental power wasn't merely there for show.

Nan Yu noticed Yu Lanfeng's expression.

"Brother, if you're really worried, I'll go back right now. I've already treated the patient who urgently needed treatment. Yuan Qiyang has arranged for someone to send him to the military base. As for my plan to stay here, examine the patients, and decide which groups should be sent to the military base next, that isn't important."

Compared to Yu Lanfeng, nothing else was important.

Nan Yu looked at him sincerely.

Yu Lanfeng gritted his teeth.

Of course he wanted Nan Yu to come back right now.

It really was too dangerous outside.

But he also knew that he couldn't keep Nan Yu tied to his side forever, refusing to let him go anywhere, even somewhere nearby.

He had to learn to overcome this state of mind.

"As long as you're fine. I trust your strength too. Once you're finished over there, hurry back. I'll be waiting for you."

After saying that, Yu Lanfeng ended the call.

Nan Yu stared blankly at the now-dark screen.

Had Yu Lanfeng really said that just now?

Had he really said something like, "I'll be waiting for you"?

Nan Yu found it almost unreal!

What kind of person was Yu Lanfeng?

He was the Marshal of the strongest legion in the Empire!

In Nan Yu's previous life, all the way until his death, he'd barely heard this Marshal say more than a few words!

But in this life, ever since Yu Lanfeng met him, he had gradually opened his heart.

Now, he could communicate with Nan Yu without any barriers at all. He would say as much as he wanted and speak whenever he felt like it.

Nan Yu remained silent for a moment before sending Yu Lanfeng a message.

"Brother, I'll come back as soon as possible. Don't worry. You'll see me again in two days!"

He put away his optical computer, then looked at Yuan Qiyang.

"Why aren't you going over to supervise the interrogation?"

Yuan Qiyang said, "I knew something like this would happen, so I specifically brought several interrogation specialists with me. They're very experienced, and their results are surprisingly good."

Nan Yu said, "All right, then. Remember to tell me as soon as you learn anything, okay?"

Yuan Qiyang said, "Don't worry, Brother Nan. I'll definitely tell you!"

For the rest of his time there, Nan Yu wandered through the various hospital rooms.

Whenever he encountered an Ability User who truly couldn't survive much longer without immediate treatment, Nan Yu treated them first and saved their lives.

It didn't matter how many military merits they had.

He cured them all.

In any case, everyone he cured would be secretly transported to Yu Lanfeng's military base, where they would undergo closed recuperation and special training.

Before Nan Yu's identity was exposed, these people couldn't appear in public!

After briefly examining all the patients, Nan Yu finally drew up sixteen groups.

Each group contained three people.

As for anyone after those sixteen groups, they could deal with them later.

Nan Yu had already stayed at this hospital for two or three days.

If he didn't go back now, Yu Lanfeng might genuinely become angry.

And coaxing Yu Lanfeng was the hardest thing in the world.

If Nan Yu weren't still underage, Yu Lanfeng might very well make him use his body to calm his anger.

But then again, there wasn't much time left before Nan Yu became an adult, was there?

Nan Yu felt a little nervous.

Did doing those things really feel that good?

He had never tried it before, so he was a little afraid.

But...

He trusted that Yu Lanfeng definitely wouldn't hurt him.

The moment he returned to the base, he headed straight for Yu Lanfeng's office.

He had gotten used to simply barging inside, so when he reached the office and saw that the door was closed, he opened it directly.

"Brother, I'm back... al...ready..."

But he'd guessed wrong.

Yu Lanfeng wasn't alone inside.

Qin Wenxing was there as well, along with Luo Anwei, who had been promoted earlier.

It seemed Luo Anwei had already earned a place here. He could even accompany Adjutant Qin Wenxing in and out of the Marshal's office now!

Yu Lanfeng said, "You two can go for now. I'll think this matter over carefully."

As they left, they both nodded to Nan Yu.

Only then did Nan Yu walk farther inside and close the door behind him.

"Brother, did I interrupt you? It looked like you were discussing something important."

Yu Lanfeng said, "Nothing major. Just some routine reporting issues. Qin Wenxing has a lot of other matters to handle, so he wants to hand over the military base's routine reports to Luo Anwei, the man he brought with him."

Nan Yu said, "Luo Anwei? He's already climbed to such a high position after only a few months? Isn't that a little too fast? Was Qin Wenxing the one who promoted him?"

Yu Lanfeng glanced at him.

"You don't think Luo Anwei is good enough?"

Nan Yu said, "I think his strength is decent, but I can't be sure about everything else. Shouldn't you investigate him for a while longer?"

Yu Lanfeng abruptly said something seemingly unrelated.

"The two of them will probably be together soon."

"Huh?"

Nan Yu was completely confused.

What did he mean, the two of them were going to be together?

Which two?

Wait.

Did he mean the two who had just left?

Luo Anwei and Qin Wenxing were going to get together?!

Nan Yu said, "Really? But I never noticed anything unusual between them before. Do they actually have feelings for each other?"

Yu Lanfeng said, "They've known each other for a long time. They simply never interacted with each other inside the legion. It seems they only started formally interacting after the last time you protected Luo Anwei."

Nan Yu certainly wasn't going to oppose other people's freedom to fall in love.

"As long as it doesn't affect their work or the interests of the legion and the Empire, they can do whatever they want. So it's decided?"

Yu Lanfeng said, "I'm planning to approve it. Luo Anwei is quite capable. He's still somewhat inexperienced right now, but it shouldn't take him long to become familiar with everything."

If Luo Anwei couldn't handle it, they could simply replace him.

It wasn't that complicated.

Nan Yu asked, "So he won't go to the battlefield or the front lines to earn military merit anymore?"

Yu Lanfeng said, "That's not a problem. They rotate. There's no such thing as a soldier with combat ability never going to the front lines."

Nan Yu said, "Oh, right, Brother. Did you get anything out of those people Yuan Qiyang sent back earlier?"

An image flashed through Yu Lanfeng's mind.

Those people were still hanging in the interrogation room, their bodies left in a terrible state by the interrogation equipment.

Then he smiled faintly.

"We got everything out of them. They were all sent by that organization. They put more effort into it this time and tried a different method."

"But..."

"They still failed."

They had failed because they hadn't anticipated two things.

The first was that Nan Yu was no longer a Mid-Tier Mental Power User.

He was already a High-Tier Mental Power User.

Naturally, that secret wouldn't be allowed to spread.

The second was that they hadn't discovered that after the previous incident, nearly every part of the hospital had been renovated.

Especially the material newly installed inside the walls.

It was a new high-strength metal alloy recently developed by Ye Xing and the legion's research department.

Under normal circumstances, there was basically no one who could destroy it.

Their failure this time had largely resulted from their inability to thoroughly investigate the situation on-site beforehand.

But the most important reason they had ultimately been caught was that Nan Yu had attached mental power threads to them.

Of course, if they had managed to run far enough away, even the legion's people wouldn't have been able to catch them.

Nan Yu's mental power threads couldn't extend infinitely. Naturally, there was a limit to their range.

However, Yuan Qiyang had immediately ordered the entire area sealed off and prohibited anyone from entering or leaving freely.

That had greatly restricted their chances of escape.

As for the two patients who had originally occupied those hospital beds, their deaths had already been confirmed.

The attackers had even destroyed their bodies.

Nothing remained.

After checking their information, they discovered that both men had been orphans.

Even after their deaths, there was no one to mourn them or arrange their funerals.

In the end, Yu Lanfeng simply gave the order to bury them in the martyrs' cemetery funded and constructed by the legion, giving them a final resting place there.

Nan Yu froze.

"What? They're dead? Really? When did they kill them? When did they replace them? This must have happened because of me..."

Yu Lanfeng saw his dejected expression.

"Enough. This has nothing to do with you. They're the ones who are insane. They value what you possess, so they keep coming after you for it."

Nan Yu didn't remain depressed for long.

After all, judging by his current strength, incidents like this would only become more frequent in the future, not less.

He would have to gradually get used to it.

Otherwise, he might eventually shut himself away completely.

"Looks like I still need to keep getting stronger. That way, I'll be able to protect myself completely."

Yu Lanfeng stared intensely at him.

Nan Yu ignored his gaze.

"Only then will I stop making people worry about me."

After saying that, he kept watching Yu Lanfeng's expression.

He noticed that the way Yu Lanfeng was looking at him seemed to be growing increasingly dangerous.

"What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

Yu Lanfeng took a deep breath. His eyes looked slightly red.

"Nothing. I was just thinking that if you're working this hard, then I have to keep climbing higher too. Otherwise, you'll definitely catch up with me."

Nan Yu blinked.

Was he joking?

If Nan Yu could actually catch up with Yu Lanfeng...

But one look at Yu Lanfeng's expression told him that he was serious.